The Collaborative Research Center for American Indian Health (CRCAIH), NIH NIHMD Grant #5U54MD008164-02, brings together tribal communities and health researchers across South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. Our goal is to build tribal research infrastructure to improve American Indian health through examination of social and environmental influences on health using transdisciplinary teams. Two community-based conferences will showcase the positive relationships established through scientific investigation of health issues on two Lakota reservations-Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST), Eagle Butte, SD and Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST), Pine Ridge, SD. Community partners and research investigators will inform tribal government, stakeholders and other scientists about the future directions of these communities in addressing the special and unique requirements of tribal sovereign nations in conducting research and the importance of these partnerships in finding solutions for equity and reduction of health disparities. Based on the expected outcomes in the capacity-building efforts with these tribal communities, it was projected that the first two tribal partners, CRST and OST, would each conduct a Community Research Conference in the third year of their partnership. In meeting this objective the proposed aims of this project and resulting two community-based conferences will be 1) to provide an information/dissemination of research projects currently conducted on the OST and CRST reservations and role of the Tribal Research Review Board; 2) to provide relationship building opportunities for researchers to meet with Tribal leaders and community members to discuss OST and CRST research agendas. The target audience will be new researchers or the continuation of broadening the established partnerships with Tribal entities for future project development; and 3) to provide a venue for information to high school and college students from OST and CRST on careers in health research. This conference will be an important opportunity for Tribal education and community to meet with scientists, universities and research institutions' representatives and their Tribal alumni for discussions on mentoring, career development and future research possibilities to meet each tribe's research priorities. The evaluation and reports from these two conferences will be available for the tribal leadership and stakeholders for future tribally-driven research and strategic planning.